stormywitch:

In my community, and I don’t doubt many others, baptizing a baby is common practice. People make entire celebrations out of this. But what happens when the child grows up to find that Christianity wasn’t the path they were meant to follow? I do believe a baptism is a devotion, which is why I do respect those who get baptized later in life, but being forced to break a devotion can leave the relationship with Yahweh sour, which some don’t particularly feel comfortable with.

I was personally never baptized, luckily, but I’ve taken the steps to undedicate myself to Wicca. (Not as intense as a devotion but still a chord had to be cut.)

One way to revoke a baptism is to go to a priest and have them formally do it. But if anyone else lives in a community like mine you’d know this can be impossible. Priests have full power to refuse to do so. And I believe to be a witch is to take power into your own hands. It’s what we do.

So if you’re a beginner pagan witch and you want to properly start again with your newly found faith, here are some tips.

Cutting the Cord

A releasing spell can be one solid way of disconnecting yourself from Yahweh. On a waning moon, gather a piece of white yarn or ribbon, a cleansing bath (purified water with sage, salt, mugwart and Angelica) some sharp scissors and a black candle. Tie a knot in the middle of the yarn signifying the promise made during your forced baptism. At this time, you can look up the Lord’s Prayer backwards and recite it, or speak your own words to god. A sort of break up text. Then cut the knot and dip the ends in the water, clearing the relationship of any hard feelings. Discard the yarn and pray to your chosen gods (or not).

Putting out the light

In the Bible, Yahweh has more than once been depicted as fire. One way to revoke your devotion to him would be to light a white candle and tell him everything, if you want to. At the end, extinguish the candle, signifying the end of the bond.

Black Baptism

This is something I thought of during my time researching traditional witchcraft. At night, go to a natural body of water encased by woods. In essence, you’ll perform a new baptism, voiding the old one and dedicating to your chosen gods or yourself or your craft. Either wear black robes or go skyclad, call out to your gods or recite the Lord’s Prayer backwards before submerging yourself completely.

Final thought

I do have to say though, this isn’t necessary. One understanding of souls, in my opinion, is that the gods you’re destined to find and follow, the ones that care for you, follow you through your entire life. They saw an unwilling promise being made and stepped in. You were baptized to “god” but it’s never specified which one. The gods you’re destined to be with were the ones in that title when it was spoken. You can interpret it as you’ve always been dedicated to your gods.

Excellent info. I wonder if I need to do something or other to cleanse myself of ties to Yahweh, Christ and Archangel Michael (thanks Anthroposophy), even though I am pretty sure Lucifer chose me young. I still like the idea of a really clean break, done respectfully and without hard feelings.